India, Pakistan, Bangladesh should be merged: Maharashtra minister

Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik yesterday said that his party -- Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) -- will welcome BJP's move "if it creates one country by merging India, Pakistan and Bangladesh," reports Indian news channel NDTV.

"…We have been saying that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should be merged. If the Berlin wall can be demolished then why can't India, Pakistan and Bangladesh come together? If BJP wishes to merge these three countries and make a single country, we will welcome it definitely," Malik told ANI, when asked to comment on former Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis' remark on Karachi.

The state minister was reacting to Fadnavis' comment on Saturday that Karachi would one day be a part of the "Akhand Bharat". "We believe in 'Akhand Bharat [undivided India]'," Fadnavis had said, according to The Indian Express. "We believe one day Karachi will become a part of India."

Fadnavis' comment followed after a controversy emerged last week as Shiv Sena leader Nitin Nandgaonkar posted a video of him telling the owner of Mumbai snack shop "Karachi Sweets" to change the name of his store to "something in Marathi". "Your ancestors are from Pakistan," Nandgaonkar was heard saying in the video. "You came from the country during the Partition, and you are welcome. I hate the name Karachi. The city in Pakistan is a hub of terrorists."